Woodruff v. Chapman

Headnote

Woodruff v. Chapman, 166 App. Div. 899 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, entered December 30, 1914, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiffs entered upon the report of a referee. The action was brought by the plaintiffs’ testator, David L. Van Nostrand, to compel a contribution from the defendants on the theory that they were copartners with the said Van

Nostrand in the real estate business. The complaint alleges that Van Nostrand expended large amounts of money on account of the alleged copartnership, and that the defendants did not pay their proportionate shares. Upon the trial of the action at Special Term an interlocutory judgment was ordered in favor of the plaintiffs’ testator on a decision, the basic finding of which was that the said Van Nostrand and the defendants had entered into an agreement of copartnership for the purpose of engaging in the real* estate business, and decreed that the plaintiffs as executors of said Van Nostrand were entitled to a contribution for all advances made and moneys expended by their testator from the defendants, and that the copartnership should be dissolved and an account had and taken of moneys expended or received by the partners in relation thereto, and of all partnership dealings and transactions.